Prevention
by Luv2Laff95
Summary: Post-movie. They'd completed the mission, leaving Cobb behind in his own dream. But when something happens and he's need him again, will they be able to convince him he's not in reality. And will their love survive? Better than it sounds. Please read! AxA
1. Chapter 1

The scene in front of her was a normal scene at an upscale hotel bar. There were business men, drinking and trying to persuade each other. There were men and women of all ages on dates. There were single people looking longingly at one another, but staying quiet and downing more and more alcohol. But for a bar, it was quiet...it was classy, and neat, and proper. Just like him.

What caught her eye was the man at the bar, sitting alone, and not seeming to mind. He had several empty glasses sitting in front of him. Although she couldn't see his face, she could see that in one hand he held a half drunk glass of Scotch and in the other he held a red die.

She took a deep breath and walked over, sitting down next to him. " Ariadne, you came." he stated.

"Of course, I came." she said simply. There was silence.

"I just- I can't believe we..." he started but she cut him off.

"Yeah, me neither." she said calmly, but then grabbed his glass and downed the rest. He chuckled without humor and looked at her, his eyes made her want to melt.

"Arthur..." she whispered, not wanting to say more. To admit she was afraid and how bad she felt.

"We shouldn't be guilty. He's happy now." Arthur said, trying to convince both himself and Ariadne.

"It's a lie though. It's a dream." She protested. He didn't say anything.

"If we brought him back to reality...he'd be stuck going insane, trying to find a way back home. Saito's gone."

She looked down at her hands which had somehow found their way and were now resting in his. She looked back up and he smiled sadly at her.

"So let him live his life the way he wants it."

"So what are we supposed to do? Keep him hooked up in a hospital room, sneaking in and filling his IV with the sedative to make it look like he's in a coma?" She asked, getting louder and louder.

He shushed her and then she glanced away. He placed his hand on her cheek and turned her to look at him.

"Wouldn't you rather live in a perfect fantasy, then a not so perfect reality?" he asked quietly.

She thought about it for a minute. "The truth?"

He nodded.

"If you were going to be there...fantasy, I guess."

He had been hanging his head but as soon as those words left her mouth, he looked up. She was blushing bright and fidgeting, watching for his reaction.

He was quiet for a minute, sure he'd been with women before, he was twenty three, but Ariadne was different though. With her, even though he'd only known her a short time, he didn't want to mess things up. He wanted to keep her with him forever.

"You don't have be in a dream for that." he said, squeezing her hand. She smiled at him and flushed before answering,

"We had to be in a dream for you to kiss me."

He smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, then leaned in slowly. As he was leaning he saw her, out of the corner of his eye, take out her totem and set it on the bar before his lips met hers. It wasn't like the kiss they'd shared in the dream. It was slow and lazy. The sweetness was still there though. He heard a clinking noise and they both looked to see that the totem had fallen over. She smiled and shrugged at him.

"Would it be...unprofessional of me to say that I think I love you?" She blurted, without thinking. She knew it would be unprofessional, and she knew she hadn't known him for long. But they'd spent so much time together. They were the first ones to show up for work and usually the last ones to leave, with the exception of Cobb. She felt like she'd known him for years.

"Yes, it would." he replied simply. She felt stupid for saying it.

He put his hand over hers that was clasping the totem. "But, my new motto is screw professionalism." She looked up at him and laughed, then cleared her throat nervously.

"I know, it's stupid. And we haven't exactly known each other for that long,"

He tried to cut her off. "Ariadne..." but she just kept going.

"You've probably been with beautiful women all over the world and I'm just...me and-"

"I love you too."

"I'm not super pretty or...what?" she asked, freezing and looking at him wide eyed.

"I love you too." he said, softly. A slow smile spread across her face.

He chuckled and then leaned in and kissed her again.

To anyone else in the bar it looked like a normal couple, having a drink together. Two kids in love. But if you looked closely, it was so much more than that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: Hey so I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. It's still really fluffy and I want to get to the story but I feel like I need to get some Arthur and Ariadne stuff cleared up before I jump into their plan of action. Anyway, I hope you guys like it! :)**

"I still don't get what we're going to do." Ariadne said as she and Arthur walked together, back to her room.

"Well since we're technically not supposed to contact each other for another month, since we just finished the job today..." Arthur said, not looking her in the eyes. He'd sort of forgotten that minor detail.

"What? Are you going to just start ignoring-" She asked, feeling herself getting panicked.

He cut her off. "No. I was talking about Cobb. We can't keep him locked up in a hospital forever. They're going to realize eventually that he didn't just have a stroke on the plane and that he's not now in a coma."

"Oh...well then what should we do?" she asked.

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. We'll think of something in the morning." They both just stared at her door.

"Is it stupid of me to not want to be alone?" she asked. He chuckled.

"No. What's bothering you?"

"A few things. The fact that I'm scared I'm dreaming, every second. And I keep seeing the projections faces, the way they were looking at me like they were accusing me. And God, I keep seeing Mal. Over and over again, she was tried to kill me so many times. And I know it's stupid cause she's not alive but still..." He reached out and engulfed her in his arms. She felt him bury his face in her hair and she hugged him closer.

"Do you...do you um want me to stay?" he asked. Her heart sped up.

"I mean...you don't have to...but..." she trailed off.

He looked down at her. "I want to." They both smiled.

She took out her key and opened the door, they both walked in and she shut it behind her.

"So will I be sleeping on the floor tonight?" Arthur asked, jokingly eyeing the one king sized bed in the middle of the room.

Ariadne just laughed and shrugged.

"Well, as tempting as it is not to, I hardly think it's appropriate for me not to." he said, a serious tone returning to his voice.

She rolled her eyes and walked over to him, grabbing onto his tie.

"Why are you so...perfect all the time?" He smiled and rested his hands on her hips.

"I'm not. But it's late, and I think the one who can still dream for a little while should get the bed." She glanced away.

"We both could get the bed." she suggested, quietly.

"If it doesn't bother you..." he said. She shook her head quickly, the frowned.

"Why does it bother you?" he shook his head too.

They both just stood there for a minute before she yawned.

"I'll go change in the bathroom, you can just change out here." she said, picking up some pajamas out of her suit case and then walking into the bathroom. He stood there for a minute before kicking off his shoes.

"Maybe we rushed." he thought, then he loosened his tie and undid his vest, placing them on the dresser.

But when Ariadne came out of the bathroom, even just dressed in her pajama pants and a tank top, her hair falling loosely around her shoulders, he thought she was beautiful even then.

"I just realized you don't have anything to change into." she said. He shrugged.

"It's fine, I'm actually going to call the hospital, you know? See how Cobb's doing?"

She nodded awkwardly and walked over to the bed burying herself under the covers.

Ariadne was a sleep a few minutes later. She still dreamed for now. Short, fuzzy dreams but dreams none the less. In this dream, she was back in the elevator of Cobb's memories. Mal, closing in on her.

"_Do you know what it's like to be a lover?" _

_ "N-no." Ariadne replied. _

_ But this time something different happened. Ariadne blinked and when she opened her eyes Arthur was standing there grinning at her the way someone who's taunting you does. _

_ "You're right. You have no idea." he said then he and Mal started laughing. Mal pulled the broken wine glass out of nowhere and was heading for Ariadne..._

She woke up, her eyes were wet and Arthur had apparently gone to sleep. He was lying next to her, still wearing his clothes.

Ariadne groped around absentmindedly for her totem, making more noise than intended.

"Ariadne?" Arthur asked drowsily.

"Where is it?" She asked panicked that she couldn't find it.

"What?" he asked, sitting up and turning on the light. Even half taken over by sleep he was still perfect as she looked at him.

"My totem, I can't find it!" he didn't question why she needed it, he understood. She was having trouble knowing the difference between reality and dreams.

He got up and stumbled over to the light switch. The room was instantly flooded with light and he felt his heart break a little at the sight of Ariadne, in tears, looking for her totem. She'd gone too far too fast with the dreams.

Arthur was there when Mal had lost it. He'd seen the look in her eyes, distant and longing. He'd seen how she could never tell what was real. And Ariadne was scarily enough, showing the beginning signs of it.

"Ari..." he said quietly, walking over to her and bending down, resting his hand on the small of her back.

"Since when do you call me that? No one calls me that." she mumbled, shrugging him off and continuing to yank apart the bedside table.

"You don't like it?" he asked, using the same quiet, soft tone.

She turned to look at him and suddenly her eyes filled with fresh tears as she launched herself at him. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry.

"No, of course I like it. I just feel stupid. I never cry and now I'm crying over a stupid meaningless dream and a chess piece." She said into his shoulder. He stroked her hair and they sat there like that for a long time before he felt something under his leg. He reached under and pulled out a gold chess piece.

"Thanks." Ariadne sniffled, taking it and putting it on the table, then knocking it over.

"You can't doubt your reality so much, that's how Mal..." he trailed off. Ariadne nodded.

"I know...that's how Mal ended up dead. That won't happen to me though Arthur, I'm not crazy."

He smiled at her and wiped the leftover tears away with his thumb. "I know...what was your dream about anyway?" he asked, not wanting to think of Ariadne possibly ending up like Mal.

"Oh, it was nothing." she said, standing up and getting back into the bed.

"Clearly it was something. What was it?" he asked, sitting down beside her. She sighed.

"I went through Cobb's memories a few days before the job." she said quietly. Arthur's eyes widened.

"What?"

"I know...it was wrong. I just wanted to see what he was doing every night while everyone else left. Turns out he'd created a prison of memories of Mal to keep her alive. And at one point I ended up in their anniversary suite alone with her. It was so...creepy. And before she tried to kill me she asked me if I knew what it was like to be a lover. I said no. Anyway, in my dream the same thing happened except..." she trailed off, embarrassed.

"Except what?" he asked.

"Except you were there. And when I said no, you told me I was right...I didn't. And then you laughed while Mal tried to kill me." she mumbled.

He just sat there for a moment. "So your projection of me doesn't really...feel the way I do about you?" he asked.

"I guess not...why is that bad?" she asked.

"It means you don't think I actually care about you. So yeah...it's bad."

"Of course I think you care about me! I don't know...it just feels too good to be true. I've only had two boyfriends before and neither ended well. I wasn't in love with either of them and I knew them for years. I've known you for like a month and I...I do love you."

He placed his hand over one of hers. "It's different. I know it feels rushed. But as weird as this sounds...I can't stand the idea of you being with anyone else. You know Eames used to tell me he was going to get you to fall for him the next job we had. And I seriously wanted to kick his ass worse than it had ever been kicked." he chuckled.

"So it's not like we have to get married tomorrow. Sometime, in the future...I hope. But we can just take time to be. Because somehow within that month...I fell in love with you." he said. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck.

"How are you so damn perfect?" She asked. He smiled and rested his head on her shoulder.

"I'm not...but thanks."


	3. Chapter 3

When she woke up in the morning the first thing she noticed was a pair of strong arms wrapped around her. The second was that the phone was ringing.

She wriggled out of Arthur's strong grip and he groaned, then put a pillow over his head.

She giggled before answering the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hello, is this Ariadne?" A woman's voice on the other end answered.

"Yeah, who's this?" She asked, sitting up. Arthur took the pillow off of his face and propped himself up, listening.

"Hi Ariadne, this is Doctor Brown from Cedar's Sinai..." Ariadne tightened her grip on the phone.

"Hi...how's he doing?" she asked.

If lying to a hospital was illegal then if the truth about Cobb was ever revealed, Arthur and Ariadne were screwed. The fact of the matter is that Saido had died, he'd died in limbo, therefor he died in the real world. They didn't have the heart to wake up Cobb so they instead hooked him up to a weaker sedative, not strong enough to induce a dream. The plane had landed and they'd convinced everyone that wasn't involved in the mission that he'd had a stroke on the flight and was in a coma. Every other night Arthur would sneak in and pour more, strong sedative into the IV he was hooked up to so that he'd keep dreaming, thinking it was all reality. That is in the event that he didn't spin the top that Mal used to use.

"Excellent! He's awake and asking for you and your boyfriend."

"What?" She exclaimed, loudly. Then she realized Arthur had forgotten to put more sedative last night, she'd prevented him from remembering.

"I know! It's fantastic! Such a miraculous recovery, he's only been gone a week. We're running some tests right now but I'd like you to get here right away."

"O-ok. Thank you." and she hung up, turning to Arthur.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Cobb woke up." she mumbled.

Arthur sat up in shock, "What, how is that even possible? The sedative was enough to last- shit. This is my fault. I forgot about it!" he exclaimed.

She shushed him and thought for a minute. "I think he's got some cover story going on. So clearly he knows what's going on."

"What makes you think that?" Arthur asked.

"Well she told me that he was asking for me and my boyfriend...I don't have a boyfriend so..." she trailed off, seeing the look on his face.

"Is that right?" he asked, hurt evident in his tone.

"Well I don't know...I just assumed- you're always so professional, that you wouldn't want a co-worker relationship."

"You're right..." he replied coldly. She shook her head, to keep from tearing up at his statement.

"We have to figure out what we're going to do about Cobb!"

"Well, like you said, clearly he knows what's going on. We might as well go see him."

"He'll be angry...I don't want him to be mad at me." Ariadne confessed.

"Has someone got a little crush on the mentor?" Arthur asked icily.

"Of course not! I told you I love you and then you told me you don't want a work relationship."

Arthur was quiet for a minute before Ariadne rolled her eyes.

"Ok, why don't you go up to your room and take a shower and I'll get ready here and then I'll meet you down in the lobby in half an hour, ok?" she asked.

She didn't wait for an answer, she just rushed him out and turned around, shutting the door behind her.

A little while later they stood at the front desk.

"Hi, we're here to see Dominic Cobb." Arthur said.

"Oh right, welcome Mr. Cobb..." Ariadne frowned but Arthur remained in character, his arm tightly around Ariadne's waist.

They followed her into what must have been the nicest hospital wing ever, all huge private rooms.

"He's in here. Visiting hours will be over at 7 pm." She informed them, then left.

Apprehensively, they walked inside. Ariadne could feel herself tense up and Arthur's grip tightened on her, despite the fact that there were no nurses around. It confused the hell out of her but she was too caught up in what was happening with Cobb to think too much about it.

"Dom?" Arthur asked. Cobb was sitting up in bed, staring at the TV which was muted.

"Answer me something, you too." he said in an eerily calm tone.

"Yes?" Ariadne and Arthur replied together.

"Why the hell would you two do this to me?" he exclaimed loudly. Ariadne felt her knees buckle at the fierce look in his eyes and sat down in a chair. Arthur closed the door.

"W-we thought it would m-m-make you happy." Ariadne stuttered.

"Happy? It was a lie! You two are lucky that the sedative wore off!" He snapped.

Ariadne looked at Arthur, even he looked a little intimidated.

"I'd expect this from you Ariadne, you're inexperienced and naive and-"

"Hey, lay off her, Cobb." Arthur growled.

"You think she has it bad? Arthur we've been together for years! Who took you in when you were a freak genius kid at sixteen who no one would take in? Me! And this is the thanks I get Arthur?" he yelled.

Ariadne saw a flash of pain in Arthur's eyes before anger replaced it. "You're fucking selfish you know that? We were trying to help you! Cause guess what? Saido's dead. You're not going home Cobb, and I highly doubt you ever will! Maybe if you're lucky some screwed up guy will take your son in and screw him up as badly as you screwed me up!"

Ariadne was now scared. The two were stubborn and strong willed...and currently very, very angry.

"Ok, I think everyone needs to calm down." She said shakily, standing up and walking in between where Arthur was standing and Cobb looked like he was about to jump out of bed.

"Sit. Down. Now." Cobb said, through gritted teeth.

"Leave her alone." Arthur snapped. Cobb raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"Look, Ari...we skipped breakfast, go down and get some food." Arthur said, handing Ariadne a twenty.

She just looked at him. "What happened to what you said earlier?" she asked, venom dripping from her voice.

He said nothing but the look in his eyes was pleading and she took the money. "Fine. Why can't I stay here?"

Cobb was still staring at Arthur. But then he answered "I think we need to talk alone." She nodded and left the room, going down to the cafeteria and giving the men their privacy.

As soon as she'd closed the door Cobb's furious expression. "I'm going to ask you one time Arthur. What the hell is going on?"

"What the hell is going on with what?"

"Well why don't you start with you and Ariadne."

"Oh, um...nothing." Cobb crossed his arms, an amused expression painted on his face.

"Well...last night was an interesting night. I know what happened with you and Mal and I don't want that to happen with me and Ariadne but..."

"You just can't keep yourself away from her?" Cobb finished for him, softening a bit. After all, Arthur was practically his younger brother.

"We haven't known each other that long but...I love her. I don't want her to be with any other guys. And she makes me crazy and I-just...I don't know what to do." Arthur spilled it all out. He wasn't one to talk about feelings but he couldn't control himself with Ariadne.

"Arthur, calm down."

Arthur realized he'd started pacing and sat down in the chair she'd been in.

"Did you too sleep together last night or something?" he asked.

Arthur shook his head. "I told her I loved her, and she said she loved me. And then we just spent the night in her suite. And then this morning I told her...that I didn't want a work relationship." Cobb rolled his eyes.

"You're an idiot. We don't work in an office..."

"But what about what happened with Mal?" Arthur blurted. Cobb's angry expression came back, followed by sorrow.

"You just have to be careful. You two shouldn't go into dreams together for recreational purposes. Strictly for work. You need to fix things with her. We all noticed the way you two look at each other."

Arthur smiled, thinking of her.

"Now, after we're done talking, you're going to go fix things, asshole got it?" Cobb asked smiling slightly.

"Got it." Arthur replied quietly .

"Now...I'm still pissed about the fact that you were going to keep me in a dream the rest of my life."

"Not the rest of your life. We didn't really have a plan. After Saido didn't wake up, we couldn't let you think it was for nothing. We all really wanted you to be happy."

"I guess I could get where you're coming from. But the one thing you never mess around with with me is my family." Cobb said, pain evident in his voice.

"I'm sorry." Arthur replied quietly.

"I know...well I was thinking about what to do. I've got a lot of free time since they think I had a stroke..." Arthur looked down at his hands.

"I think I know a way to get home." Cobb said. Arthur's head snapped up.

"How? I owe you so much, I'm in. Hands down."

"I need Ariadne in here too. She'd be involved as well. Now, go down there and make her yours. When you come back, I want to see my point man and his architect girlfriend." Arthur smiled and walked over, putting his hand on Cobb's shoulder.

"I'll try my best." and then he left for the cafeteria.


	4. Chapter 4

When Arthur found Ariadne she was sitting at table, folding and unfolding the dollar bill.

"Hey." he said quietly, sitting down across from her.

"Hi." she replied.

"Listen, Ariadne-" she cut him off, not wanting to hear what she thought was going to be the ultimate rejection.

"I couldn't buy anything. You know I've always hated hospital food? When I was a kid I thought the meat was made out of the people that died here." she chuckled without humor.

He placed his hands over hers and laced their fingers together. She finally looked up at him, gold brown eyes meeting deep chocolate ones.

"I'm sorry about all the stuff I've said today." he started. She shrugged.

"It's just...it scares me that we've only known each other a little while and I feel this strongly about you. Usually I'm good at keeping my feelings buried deep down so they don't affect me badly. But I can't with you." she smiled a little at him.

"And I was also worried that if we really were together, the same thing happened to Mal might happen to you. I see the way you look when we're planning about going under. You're getting addicted-" She frowned.

"No I'm not." He sighed.

"Let me finish." She was quiet. "Anyway, and I'd blame myself if anything like that ever happened. But I realized after talking to Cobb, that I can't not have you."

She smiled. "Is this your way of asking me to be your girlfriend or something?"

He smiled back. "I guess so."

"Well then I'd love to be." She said back, leaning forward and closing the distance between him, kissing him quickly before leaning back into her chair.

Then her face grew serious.

"What did Cobb say?" Arthur shook his head.

"He says he thinks he knows a way home. It involves another job, with the two of us. He said we both needed to be there so he could explain." She nodded and handed him the money, then stood up.

"Let's go...I'm...interested to see what this could be." she said. Arthur chuckled and got up too, interlacing their fingers as they made their way to Cobb's room.

When they were back in, both seated on a window seat, the nurse's were cleared out, and the door was closed, Cobb began to tell them of his plan.

"There's a man by the name of Thomas Finn. Very powerful in the government security. Through some...semi current research, I've found out that he was the man that Mal and my lawyer contacted when she told him...that I threatened to kill her." He trailed off momentarily and Ariadne looked at Arthur, expecting him to ask a question...he didn't.

"I knew him though, from a job. And in order to get me kicked out of the country, the idea had to be planted in his head...he investigated what happened with Mal and had all the evidence I was innocent, but someone intercepted it. Someone planted the idea that I was guilty of killing Mal into his head. I believe however, it wasn't incepted the way we incepted Fisher. I believe this idea was put on sort of a continuous loop. Designed to refresh itself every so often since it was a such a powerful idea."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "I think that if we can prevent this new loop of the idea from finishing that it could be my way home. I believe this man is the only person who can prove I'm innocent and get me back home."

"So what does this mean for us?" Arthur asked.

"It means we're getting the team back together." Ariadne finished for Cobb. Cobb nodded.

"I can't leave this place for another few days so Arthur, I'm going to need you to get a hold of everyone."

"Ok. Everyone meaning?"

"Eames and Yusuf. Also, try to see if you can find us some...back up."

"Back up?" Ariadne asked, looking at Arthur, who just ignored her.

"I will." he replied. Just then a nurse walked in.

"Mr. Cobb? Visiting hours are over." She said.

"We'll be back tomorrow." Arthur said, walking over and acting like an emotional younger brother who just saw his older brother wake up from a coma.

Cobb just nodded as he watched Ariadne and Arthur leave, then leaned back against the pillows and turned the volume up on the tv, to drown out the nurse's nagging.


End file.
